American Indian and Indigenous Studies PhD
The PhD in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) is an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental program. Grounded by a strong commitment to the worlds, histories, representations, and political struggles of Indigenous peoples locally and globally, the intellectual project of American Indian and Indigenous Studies uses interdisciplinary methods of critical inquiry as a means through which doctoral students engage research and scholarship.
The AIIS PhD is a full-time, residential program that typically will take five to six years to complete. The program is committed to broad interdisciplinary training in the field with an ethic of collaboration with tribal nations, organizations, and communities in support of sovereignty, diversity of cultures and experiences, resurgence, and relationality.
The graduate faculty consists of core American Indian Studies department faculty members and graduate faculty members housed in several departments. Together, we train our students to uphold tribal values and objectives in their work.
The curriculum is composed of:
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Required Courses (6 credits)
- Thematic Areas (9 credits taken across three thematic areas)
- Electives (21 credits)
All UMN doctoral students additionally complete 24 doctoral thesis credits, preliminary written and oral examinations, and a dissertation and final oral examination.
Students who have completed prior graduate-level coursework may request that up to 9 credits of transfer coursework be considered for application to degree requirements. Please note that the program only considers transfer credit requests for admitted students.
Why an AIIS PhD Program, and Why Now?
The creation of the AIIS PhD Program responds to the landmark TRUTH (Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing) Project report released in April 2023, “a Native-organized, Native-led, community-driven research movement that offers multiple recommendations on how the University of Minnesota community can be in better relation with Indigenous peoples.” It also addresses a June 2020 Resolution from the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council which listed the establishment of a PhD program as one of its fourteen specific calls for the University of Minnesota to “Fulfill Its Obligations to the Eleven American Indian Tribal Governments within the State of Minnesota.”